


Even Life Needs a Reality Check

by kealin



Series: Life and Death [1]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 14:32:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2195367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kealin/pseuds/kealin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Kise and Kuroko are Life and Death respectively.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even Life Needs a Reality Check

In the field of in-between, of dreams and nightmares and fantasy and reality, where souls die and return anew, Life, cast in a crown of gold and eyes of amber turns and looks over his shoulder and asks Death:

“Why do you chase after me? In every incarnation, in every form, why are you always at my heels?”

Death, pale in color with hair blue like the calmest of skies and eyes like the most gentle of ponds (Life always found it amusing that the thing all of creation feared the most appeared to be utterly peaceful), blinks his eyes at the sudden question and looks up over his shoulder at Life.

There is a pause between them, for over the long stretch of eternity, they have come to a sort of companionship one could only have when they accepted the inevitable.

Slowly, Death looks away, clear blue eyes gazing back at the field around them.

“It seems you still don’t understand despite the number of times we played this game,” he states softly, as if worn and the numerous lives they take on have taken their toll on him. (The last one, before they had returned to this realm, was an incarnation that had taken on his personality most. The boy was of his coloring, his mannerisms and his speech. It was the same for Life who took on a boy with equally golden hair and eyes, bright in nature with a duality in his personality because Life was never always kind.) “I have never chased you. I will never chase you. It is quite the opposite. The one doing the chasing is you.”

Life turns his brow quirking up as he looks down at his companion curiously. “Elaborate.”

Death keeps his back to him, continuing to look ever forward across the realm. “It is because you are Life. There is a yearning in you, as you live, to understand things that are out of your scope and reach: the skies, the stars, the planets, the ocean, the earth, and all those in-between. You place challenge after challenge in front of yourself so that you can overcome them to heighten your sense of self-worth and importance.”

Smiling, Life takes a step so that he stands side by side with Death and asks in a teasing tone, “How does that, in any way, mean that I am the one chasing you, Kurokocchi?”

“Because, Kise-kun,” Death returns without missing a beat, easily tossing back the name that was theirs when they were in the human realm. “You don’t understand me. You understand the concept, the act of dying and the meaning of death, but you don’t know what is beyond it. You don’t know if there is or isn’t a ‘life after death’. You spend countless hours obsessing over it, worshipping it, creating an entire realm in which all that is evil and horrid resides beside it. Death is cold, cruel, and unrelenting in your eyes and when you see otherwise, it fills you with an urgent need to understand  _why_.

“Death does not chase. Death does not idly stalk and bid its time when someone is nearing their last breath. Death simply is. Where there is Life, there is Death, but without Life, Death cannot exist solely on its own. In a way, it is much like a shadow, an absence of light, because you will never be able to cast one standing in pitch darkness — and as a shadow makes the light all the brighter, without Death, Life would not seem so grand, or be so cherished.” Death turns his head, looking up at Life with a secret gleam in his blue eyes. “You chase me because I am the one challenge you will never truly grasp.”

Life is still.

Standing side by side with Death, he takes in what is given to him and absorbs it wholly because life is selfish, and greedy, and emotion, and while it is sometimes calm, it is never at a constant peace like death.

Slowly, he smiles and reaches out to touch the cold cheek of Death.

“Then I suppose you should never cease being the one thing I can never grasp since you give life meaning.”

“You’ve taken on the horrible habit of saying extremely cheesy words from Kise Ryouta,” Death calmly responds though he does not move away from the touch.

Wounded, Life places a hand to his chest as he proclaims. “I  _am_  Kise Ryouta! Kurokocchi, you really are cruel and cold.”

“Sometimes life needs a reality check.”

“That’s really not funny!” 


End file.
